52 Replies to ““No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful.””

  1. There’ve been times I’ve wished Free Software was “Free As In Bug-Free”, too. However, I’ve raised three children on Linux and they haven’t touched M$ware in this house.

  2. what disturbs me most is that you’re allowed to confiscate Linux stuff from kids in the classroom just like that.
    either that teacher needs to be arrested or the relevant municipal / state legislation governing whichever school that allowed this to happen needs to be re-written. with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer.

  5. Only mindless zits use Microsoft s*** voluntarily.
    I have an old HP workstation which uses Windows NT 4.0, circa 1999. Not too bad. Good for CorelDraw 8, and Watcom Fortran.
    Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups: a robust version of Windows 3.1) actually approached being a good OS.
    I must, occasionally, use Word. Must. And always on OS X. For the rest, the Linux/OS X universes (parallel universes) are great.
    Whenever someone says that they are using Windows I always think, “Looooser”. Probaby a nerd who enjoys paying income tax.
    As for the validity of free software – gcc is now the standard for C and C++; gsl (Gnu Scientific Library) will give NR a good run for its money. And so forth.
    Maybe Kate could comment on the GIMP.

  7. Weaned my family off M$ two years ago with the purchase of an iMac. The biggest complaint was the lack of games available, my response is always ‘that’s why we have a Playstation’. Now they’ve discovered web based Java sites, so it’s a non-issue.
    OSX is not without it’s faults, but nothing that approaches how incredibly annoying and unresponsive Windoze can be.
    Can’t say my one foray into Linux a few years ago was all that satisfying, found I spent more time in Grep on a command line getting things to work than I did actually doing any work. But, that was then. This laptop I’m on is due for an upgrade, so maybe I’ll give it a shot again.
    I will NEVER buy another PC.

  8. If it weren’t were for me being a flight simmer demanding top quality, I’d seriously consider Linux. M$ had better realize Windows 7 is the future of their organization… and there will be no bailout for them to make Windows 8 the Bailout.

  9. The stupidity of the teacher is monumental to be sure.
    So far as MS products go? More than adequate for the VAST majority of computer users.
    Face it, Linux is for geeks. Nothing wrong with that, but it is the flat out truth. Our two number crunching machines at work run on Linux. They require more care and attention than the 30 plus XP work stations used for lighter computing needs.

  10. Mac user. Never had a problem. I’m mystified that anyone would use microsoft based computers. Troublesome junk, and they always have been.

  14. This teacher completely overstepped the boundary of the role.
    I’m interested in the idea of using Linux and open source software but I don’t have the time or inclination to learn enough to really do it. It’s just easier to go to Staples and buy a computer that I can plug in and use.

  15. If Microsoft were to make a vacuum cleaner it would be their first product that didn’t suck.

  17. not only is my software free, so is the dang ‘puter it’s self
    yah just gotta luv being dutch (another way of saying cheap bastar…..:-)))))

  18. I’m concerned with how easy it is to demonize someone over what is in essence, a fairly ordinary disagreement–one which could (and should) have been resolved with a one-on-one meeting. There’s a Roman Circus quality to the internet where everyone can give a thumbs down or up on any topic. Fair enough but it can become excessive. Would any of us speak to a person like some of messages that follow the article? Sure, she wasn’t identified. Perhaps the whole story is made up and Karen is simply a parable to give the Linux man a chance to celebrate his accomplishments and make a point about the stranglehold that Microsoft has on the industry. But the story taps into an ugly part of the human psyche. Perhaps because we’re heading towards Christmas but the story made me think of the Henry James quotation: Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. To make a point about Linux, a teacher’s act was demonized into something sinister and as a result, she was made a target of horrible comments.
    I retired from teaching and over my career, I made some bad calls (for which I apologized if I became aware of them). But I think if I had been crucified publicly like this teacher (again assuming she exists–the story is a bit too pat in spots) I would have thrown it all in. Which would have been too bad, because over all, I think I was a pretty decent teacher.

  19. Post by: Vitruvius at December 13, 2008 8:27 PM
    Good one. I have never tried the Linux system. Have a couple of nephews that have used the system for years.

  20. I run both Windows and Linux, they both have their uses. Linux for firewall and my eeePC, Windows for the “big” computer.
    The old corporate Goliath vs Open Source David is not what I take home from this. That’s pretty much a marketing discussion and not much else.
    No, what I’m finding interesting is the number of people primed to jump on anything to do with teachers. This guy generated -thousands- of cranky responses with one little blog posting.
    Naturally he’s appalled by this, and I say good on him for not throwing the teacher to the wolves. But the thing is, there’s a major buttload of people all over the Western world just p1ssed right off at the teaching profession, ready to go off at any opportunity.
    That, as they say, is interesting.

  21. It just amazes me that a company that produces a product that is so bad, that sucks so much, that causes so much frustration etc… etc… can be so successful and make soooooooooooo much money.
    Man, I wish I could make such a sh-tty product.
    By the way, I read the other day that a study was conducted on the differences between users of PC’s and Macs. Turns out that users of Macs are likely to be latte sipping snobs who hang out at a certain book store usually hooked-up with a certain upperclass coffee chain. Hey, its just what I read – ok!

  22. What is the best version of Linux to get started on?
    I tried Red Hat about 3 or 4 years ago and gave up. Then I tried Ubunto (last year) and gave up. Couldn’t install programs using their Gui. Couldn’t play my legally purchased movies. I am computer literate and have had some training in UNIX.

  23. http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8
    Try the above link and you will see that Windoze still accounts for 89.62 market share.
    For all the people complaining, just send in your error reports and eventually they will get fixed.
    Cheers
    Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    Frankenstein Battalion
    2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)
    Knecht Rupprecht Division
    Hans Corps
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North

  24. Gunney….I’ve run Ubuntu for two years and have installed Ubuntu/Kubuntu for several friends. The only problem that I had was with wireless set-up, but thas was before 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex).
    The way I go about installation is using Gparted booted from cd-rom to create unformatted partition, then install Ubuntu (booting from cd) in the largest available free space.
    (Sorry for the post off-subject)

  25. I’ve been working with computers since DOS, and Ive used them all.It strikes me as a bit strange that Mac users look down in PCs , but MAC went to an INTEL chipset so they could run Windows. I’ve used LINUX AND IT SUCKS, when you cant install a printer without jumping through hoops. As for Microsoft haters, get over being so friggin jealous of a guy who made it big.Microsoft don more for conectivity and universitality that ALL the others combined. Duker

  27. I’d like to get my feet wet in the Linux environment, but am a little unsure of how to start. Seems to me Linux could grow a lot faster if Linux users could hold seminars every so often in major towns.
    I, for one, would be happy to PAY a few dollars to have a Linux geek install a working Linux OS on a partition in one of my machines, and to “hands-on” show me how it’s done. If my only use of the computer was for home entertainment and Web surfing, I’d have made a stab at it long ago, but my work requires that I use several proprietary programs that (supposedly, anyway) only run in a Windows environment. Perhaps they would run under one of the Windows emulators that can be had for Linux?
    I would really like to sit down and talk for an hour so with a really knowledgeable Linux user.

  28. gordinkneehill….download image (.iso) from Ubuntu site, burn on a disc, go to BIOS (press DEL or F12 or whatever splash screen on start says about set-up), change boot sequence to your cd/dvd-rom, then put your Ubuntu disc into cd-rom, restart computer and you’ll be guided with installation.

  29. Linux for the most part sucks as a desktop OS. For servers though, it’s a different matter. I don’t think I will ever install a Microsoft server OS on bare metal again.

  30. Duker conjectures above that, with Linux, one “can’t install a printer without jumping through hoops”. What, printing you are wanting, already? Now, see, there’s your problem right there. It’s the third millenium, man: The Paperless Office! I mean, really, let’s get with the program, shall we?

  31. a different bob:
    It just amazes me that a company that produces a product that is so bad, that sucks so much, that causes so much frustration etc… etc… can be so successful and make soooooooooooo much money.
    Man, I wish I could make such a sh-tty product.
    Bob, I worked for a company called ROLM in the mid-80’s, when PCs were just beginning to appear in corporate offices. ROLM made telephone systems for big offices, and had recently been purchased by IBM. I went on a number of sales calls with IBM reps, and was astonished by the number of calls where I finished my technical presentation on the ROLM system, and saw the client turn to his IBM account manager and ask “How much is it?”. We would get a purchase order within a month, for list.
    I had worked for a different PBX maker, Mitel, previously, and I was used to a sales cycle where we had to respond to an RFP along with other vendors (like Nortel, AT&T, etc.), get into protracted negotiations about price, service, upgrades, etc. and maybe – if we were lucky – close the deal in 3-6 months at a substantial discount to list.
    This was my first exposure to IBM’s incredible market power in the 80’s. Even though processor and storage alternatives that cost less, ran faster, and stored more (Amdahl, Burroughs, etc.) were available, managers just bought IBM. Same thing in phones – I couldn’t admit it at the time, but the ROLM system was more expensive and less flexible than most alternatives, and yet we sold tons of it to companies that bought strictly for the IBM connection.
    I also noticed that these same managers would not allow any non-IBM PC’s in their networks. IBM claimed that connecting “non-heterogenous” elements to an SNA network could – could, mind you as they could never actually prove that it DID – damage the network. Bell Canada (and AT&T in the US) had pulled the same stunt for years, saying that connecting a non-Bell/AT&T device to the phone network could damage the entire public phone system. In the US, this lie was overturned by the 1968 “Carterphone” decision; it took 13 more years before the CRTC allowed interconnect in Canada. (On a somewhat related issue, long distance competition was allowed in the 70’s in the US; it took the Mulroney cabinet’s THREE reversals of the (Liberal appointed) CRTC shut down of long distance provider Call-Net before long distance competition was finally legal here.) The point is these dominant firms sold what we called “FUD” – fear, uncertainty, and doubt. “Why take a chance on this new thing when you can get real IBM device?”. “Hey, this might mess up your whole network!”. “We can’t honour our service agreements if you connect non-IBM devices.”
    Thus, IBM shops would only OK the purchase of IBM PCs, all of which, of course, came with MS-DOS bundled with them. Gates offered to sell MS-DOS to IBM for around $10 million in the mid-80’s (the amount varies with the source of the rumour), but IBM turned him down, to their chagrin and Gates’ enrichment. When Apple introduced the first Mac’s, IBM and MS both responded by referring to it as a toy, even though the Mac used a technically superior processor, software architecture, and user interface. PC’s outsold Mac’s by the millions.
    Don’t ascribe MS’s, Gates’, or the PC’s success to technical superiority at any point; it has always been a combination of market share, FUD, and the technological ignorance of the masses, who, like Liberal voters, believe what they’ve repeatedly been told.

  32. For those that want try Linux but only have one machine and don’t want to give up windows.
    There is a product on the market called Vmware server (http://vmware.com/products/server/). This is free. Basically, you can install this software on your Windows PC and install whole operating systems within it via virtualization technology.
    Short of this is you can enjoy the comfort of your MS Windows system while at the same time experiment with Linux.
    By the way, you can download whole OS’s configured as everything from web servers to routers that will run in your virtual environment from http://vmware.com/appliances/
    It doesnt get any easier.

  33. You know, it’s funny how I ran the Microsoft Xenix port of Unix on a true-blue IBM 5160 (PC-XT) with an Intel 286 processor, 4 MB of RAM, and 20 MB of 8-inch hard-disk, starting in 1986; and you tell that to kids today, and all they can do is argue about last year’s toys. I’ve used Unix since ’76, my company uses it today for our servers and developers (including some OS/X, which is now a variant of Unix), and many of our customers use Windows machines to run their web-browser terminals, and we craft our software to accomodate them.
    Arguably, the Algol-microprogrammed Burroughs machines had the most technically advanced hardware and software architecture of any machine to date, in the early ’70s, although they weighed a ton. Yet it remains the case that Windows can’t properly fork(), and that is its fatal flaw, left over from the early NT design days, when Microsoft out of spite took down the VAX/VMS architectural road, rather than the clearly, at least in retrospect, superior Unix architecture.
    Meanwhile, if your machine works for
    you, you should probably ignore me.

  34. Microsoft deserves critisizm (Win98 for sure and Vista so I hear) but I’ve had few problems with either XP Home or Pro.
    From my experience, most problems relate to Windows updates. Since I learned to control the impulse to download anything on offer, think about what I’m installing, check all my software to see if it’s working if I do download something, and system restore it right away if there is a problem, I haven’t run into anything that isn’t easily overcome.

  35. “No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful.”
    Sure, I’ll agree with that statement if it means open source developers should be entitled to generous tax credits for their donations to the public good. . . 😛

  36. GYM said: “yah just gotta luv being dutch”
    Ah, the Dutch.
    Wooden shoes.
    Wooden head.
    Wouldn’t listen.
    heh.
    DaWG (grandmother’s maiden name? DeVries)
    A resident of America’s Hat

  37. Oh, and that teacher?
    I’m pretty sure tech ignorance is NOT a good reason to crucify someone.
    She was in error and made a judgement call that, according to the blogger’s updated accounting, had some veracity on first blush. At least from her perspective.
    I often find tech geeks, movie geeks, etc can be vicious little sh*ts from their boycaves in their parent’s basements.
    Get ’em in the light of day and it’s clear who to pity.
    DaWG
    A Resident of America’s Hat©

  39. Vit: “Now, see, there’s your problem right there. It’s the third millenium, man: The Paperless Office! I mean, really, let’s get with the program, shall we?”
    Is that the new open source selling(cough) point – It’s not a problem that it doesn’t work – you really don’t want to do that anyway. Well, like they say, you get what you pay for.

  40. There are mindless zealots in the thrall of all the major operating systems.  It doesn’t surprise me that some of the comments coming from Linux users were laced with vitriol — in fact, I would have been more surprised if they’d all been civil.
    I’ve watched live confrontations between proponents of Windows, Mac OS and Linux, and the only way I could stomach the inanity was to re-interpret the entire scenario as unintentional comedy.
    Use what works.  For you.
    Garth

  41. D.A. White Guy: “I’m pretty sure tech ignorance is NOT a good reason to crucify someone”
    …unless there’s something in it for the crucifier. Like Ken Stark is suggesting, follow the money to the smoking gun. The teacher is using fear as a weapon to attempt to stifle reasonable debate and cement public policy. Where have we seen this before?
    The teacher’s actions are akin to AGW enviromentalist SOP’s. Who knows what other of her red vanilla dogma’s are forced down student’s throats out of the reach of parental awareness. If my kids were in her class, knowing what I do now, I’d be upset. The saddest thing is this teacher is only one footsoldier amongst many are working to replace reason with socialist/facist religion using the classroom as their sanctuary.
    I admire Mr. Stark. His effort to drag a classroom bully into the light is an example to encourage other parents.
    Many teacher’s have sold out their professional ethics and personal character. Do they ever wonder if pension funds are worth the cost of walking the dark path, to themselves and our future?

  42. So,I have learned in short order that I am a “zit” and that my computer is “junk”. Oh well I am sure glad that I have a “geek’ for a son-in-law. By the way he has a Mac and loves it but doesn’t call me a zit for using Microsoft Windows.

  43. Vituvius:You obviously dont have a problem without a printer?? Well the people I work for (computer services) have a big problem without printers. Duker

  44. Whats this bunk about printers? I use Fedora Core 10 at work. It was originally Fedora Core 7 but I have upgraded at every version release. I have an old HP 2100 laser printer installed and a newer Lexmark Color laser printer installed. Both work perfectly and never failed during the 3 upgrades.
    Before we got the Active Directory bug we were an exclusive Linux shop. Our domain servers were Samba servers and our print servers ran Linux.
    So yes Duker, printing works in Linux. Sometimes the vendors don’t play nice and build Linux drivers but Ithink those days are past.

  45. Sometimes I think I have the only working copy of Vista in existance. Sure there have been problems but nothinbg I couldn’t attribute to the OS. A simple search of the Internet got me the fixes to those problems.
    I do use linux as well. A small distro that is faster than Vista. But I can’t use my printer with it. Nor can I use it with any other linux. Because drivers for this printer do not exist in the linux world. Work arounds do exist, and I suppose I could go to the trouble of getting the work around tro work, but then the printer wouldn’t work as well as it does under Vista.
    I’ve also been spending some time getting a linux distro to work with a screen reader. So a visually disabled user could take advantage of the so called free software. You know what, if I were blind I wouldn’t use linux, not if I could afford a windows system. The free voice engines that I have been able to get working suck big time. Especially when compared to what is available in the windows world.
    So there is a cost to using linux. Maybe not in cash money, but in lack of quality, inconvenience, etc.

  46. DaWG
    if you called my mother DUTCH, she’d have a bird, she was Frisian:-))))
    as to me, I came to canada as a mite, thusly my head is now just soft wood:-))))
    and on topic, the teacher in this discussion displays what I’v seen in many cases in the past, a total disconnect from reality

  47. What is terrifying is that this woman is a teacher. She holds the future in the palms of her hands, and she spews crap like this. Amazing. No wonder so many kids these days graduate to be useless.

  48. gordinkneehill:
    “I’d like to get my feet wet in the Linux environment, but am a little unsure of how to start. Seems to me Linux could grow a lot faster if Linux users could hold seminars every so often in major towns”
    Gord – check your nearest city, and see if there’s a linux user’s group. Try googling city_name LUG or linux user’s group. Throw yourself on their mercy.

  49. I run Linux, Mac OS X and windoze on my machines as well as some older OS’s that very few people have heard of. I like Linux and use open source software whenever possible but have to use windoze for much of my computer needs as many of the programs I need to use on a daily basis don’t run on other OS’s. I refuse to touch Vista as this OS is pure evil and I’m glad to see lt failing. We’ve replaced machines in our office recently and had no problem getting them with XP installed and the hospital I work at has absolutely no intention of going to Vista.
    Having 40+ years of programming experience, I find myself gravitating back to the familiar unix/linux environment. What I hate about M$ is that they assume that people will constantly upgrade and anything done with a previous version of their OS is worthless. In 1993 I started using one of the first tablet PC’s and loved it (80386 with 4 Mb of RAM and a 110 Mb HDD). I used the M$ libraries to write a number of programs which stored and minupulated digital ink and could still used them in W95, but when the new XP based tablet PC’s came out M$ had a totally new ink format and all of the drawings in old ink format were totally inaccessible. In contrast, the Mac (at least until it made the assinine decision to go with Intel rather than Power PC’s) will run ancient Mac code in the classic environment. The 1988 version of M$ windows for Mac is totally unsupported by M$ but on my Mac mini I can run this old version of Word and export my 1988 word files in rich text format so I can use them with Open Office.
    The one good thing that M$ did was Visual Basic, but they have stopped supporting this. VB.NET is so different that one has to essentially do a complete rewrite of VB code to port it to VB.net. I haven’t decided which way I’ll go yet, but will probably switch to using C as there are lots of open source C compilers available so I don’t have to worry about obsolescence.

  50. To Edward Teach who sputtered “Linux for the most part sucks as a desktop OS…” I say, “FUD you.”
    To gordinkneehill: maybe the solution to your problem lies in the following links? Read on.
    I have been running linux — “on bare metal”, as Edward Teach put it — as my desktop OS for several years. I also keep an installation of Windows on hand, running seamlessly, on a virtual machine, within linux for testing purposes.
    So, here are some links for those who want to try linux from the comfort of their current OS:
    http://www.virtualbox.org/
    http://veedee-eyes.com/veedeeeyes/
    My personal recommendation is openSUSE 11.0 with the KDE 3.5.x desktop (KDE4.x is NOT ready, IMO).
    Been M$-free since Mandrake 8.2 and loving it. 🙂

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation